Chapter 4 - The Night I Couldn’t Remember
I did not sleep.
I sat beside my daughter until sunrise, replaying the last year of my life.
Derek and I had been together for three years.
We had lived together for eighteen months.
There had never been another man.
There had never even been an opportunity.
Then I remembered the Moretti Foundation gala.
Eleven months earlier.
My nonprofit employer had received an invitation after winning a community education grant.
I attended alone because Derek claimed he had a business dinner.
I remembered champagne.
A balcony.
Music.
Then almost nothing.
Not because I had been drunk.
I had consumed one glass.
But I remembered becoming dizzy.
I remembered a man catching me near the staircase.
Dark suit.
Warm hands.
A voice.
You’re safe.
I woke the following morning in a private guest suite at the Moretti Grand Hotel.
Fully dressed.
Shoes beside the bed.
My purse untouched.
A female physician told me I had fainted after someone apparently tampered with my drink.
I had refused to make a police report.
I had been embarrassed.
And terrified.
Luca entered the breakfast room just after seven.
I was waiting.
“The gala.”
He stopped.
“You were there.”
He said nothing.
“You caught me.”
“Yes.”
“You were the man.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“Did anything happen?”
His face changed instantly.
“No.”
The force of the answer shocked me.
“Nothing happened to you while you were unconscious.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I stayed outside your door until the doctor cleared you.”
I searched his face.
“Why?”
“I recognized your name.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Eleanor made me promise never to bring my family back into your life.”
I folded my arms.
“You keep using promises to avoid answers.”
Luca looked toward the window.
Then finally spoke.
“Your mother was not always a librarian.”
I waited.
“She worked for my father.”
“Doing what?”
“Accounting.”
My stomach tightened.
“My father controlled businesses far outside real estate.”
Luca’s tone told me enough.
“Illegal businesses?”
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“Your mother discovered that my uncle was stealing from the family.”
“What happened?”
“She brought the records to my father.”
Luca’s eyes darkened.
“My uncle learned what she had done.”
“That broken wrist.”
“He tried to abduct her.”
I covered my mouth.
“I stopped him.”
“You saved her?”
“She saved me first.”
Luca explained that his uncle had drawn a gun.
My mother had pushed Luca away before the shot was fired.
She was injured during the escape.
“My father offered her money.”
“She refused.”
“He offered protection.”
“She refused that too.”
That sounded exactly like my mother.
“She asked for one thing.”
“What?”
“That the Morettis never contact you.”
I looked at my daughter.
“Until now.”
“Until someone began searching for you.”
His phone rang.
He answered.
Then slowly turned toward me.
“What now?”
“The lab repeated Derek’s medical records.”
He ended the call.
“The procedure was successful.”
My heart began racing.
“He cannot be the biological father.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“There’s more.”
I hated those words.
Luca placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Brittany leaving the same fertility clinic.
Beside her walked Derek.
The photograph had been taken eight months before my pregnancy.
“They were together before you became pregnant.”
I whispered, “Why would Brittany care about my baby?”
Luca looked grim.
“I don’t think she does.”
May you like
“What does she care about?”
“Something your mother left you.”
